October 18, 2013 1:19am EDTOctober 18, 2013 12:16am EDTThe Red Sox are within a whisker of getting to the World Series for the first time since 2007. Mike Napoli launches a monster homer and the Boston bullpen gets the final 11 outs in a 4-3 victory. SN's Jesse Spector has the details.

DETROIT—Mike Napoli hit a monster home run and later scored what turned out to be the decisive run on a wild pitch as the Boston Red Sox hung on for a 4-3 win over the Detroit Tigers in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series on Thursday night. Koji Uehara got the final five outs to give Boston a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series, and a chance on Saturday at Fenway Park to win the pennant. Here's how it happened, as it happened:

PREGAME

Following a seven-run outburst in Game 4 that more than doubled his team's output for the series, manager Jim Leyland tinkers with his lineup only a little bit, flip-flopping catcher Alex Avila and second baseman Omar Infante. The Tigers bat right fielder Torii Hunter leadoff, followed by Miguel Cabrera at third base, Prince Fielder at first, Victor Martinez as the designated hitter, Jhonny Peralta in left field, Infante, Avila, Austin Jackson in center field and Jose Iglesias at shortstop. Anibal Sanchez returns to the mound after his six innings of no-hit ball in Game 1.

Looking for a hit against Sanchez this time around, Boston manager John Farrell makes a couple of changes to the Boston lineup, with left fielder Jonny Gomes, third baseman Xander Bogaerts and catcher David Ross replacing Daniel Nava, Will Middlebrooks and Jarrod Saltalamacchia, respectively. The top of the Red Sox order remains constant, with leadoff man Jacoby Ellsbury in center field, followed by right fielder Shane Victorino, second baseman Dustin Pedroia, designated hitter David Ortiz and first baseman Napoli. Then it's Gomes, shortstop Stephen Drew, Bogaerts and Ross to round out things, with Jon Lester pitching.

FIRST INNING

Sanchez picks up where he left off in Game 1 with a strikeout of Ellsbury, then comes an interesting wrinkle: Victorino, who has batted exclusively right-handed since August because of a left hamstring injury, turns around to the left side. The result is a broken-bat grounder on which most of Victorino's bat winds up on the basepath between first and second base, a similar path taken by the ball that Fielder fields and flips to Sanchez covering first for the out. Finally, after 6 2/3 innings against Sanchez without a hit, Pedroia lines a single into left field. He's left on base when Ortiz's struggle in the series extends to 1-for-16 on a chopper right to Fielder, who makes this play unassisted.

Lester starts his night by getting Hunter to hit a lazy fly to right, but then gives the Tigers their first baserunner with a walk to Cabrera. It's hard to blame him for the pitcharound with a lefty-lefty matchup with Fielder next and the Detroit first baseman batting only .242 with one extra-base hit in the playoffs. Lester gets the ground ball he wants, just in the wrong place—Fielder's ball bounces in front of the plate and goes over the mound, then splits Drew and Pedroia for a single into center field.

If Fielder hits the ball off the grass instead of the dirt, Lester probably is out of the inning with a double play, but now the Tigers have a scoring opportunity with Martinez at the plate. He hits the ball hard, but right at Ellsbury in center field for the second out. Peralta hits a line drive into left field for a single, and Cabrera rounds the bag at third, seeing third-base coach Tom Brookens waving his arm. Brookens throws up a stop sign, but it's too late; Cabrera picked up the initial go sign and is lumbering home, directly into a tag by Ross after a perfect throw from Gomes. A mild attempt to jar the ball loose fails, and the first inning ends without a run.

SECOND INNING

The first run of the game comes quickly, though, as Napoli blasts a 3-1 pitch from Sanchez into the second row of hedges over the center-field wall, which has a 420-foot sign on it. The ball nestles next to the bank of television cameras, not to be seen until offseason gardening work is done.

Cabrera's rough sequence continues when he butchers a routine grounder from Gomes to allow him to reach first base. Sanchez strikes out Drew, but it's only a brief respite. Bogaerts doubles down the left-field line, and then Ross doubles off the left-field wall to score Gomes. Bogaerts only makes it to third because he has to hold up and make sure that Peralta doesn't catch the ball, but the rookie comes home anyway on Ellsbury's infield single off Sanchez's glove. It's 3-0 Red Sox, and Rick Porcello starts warming up in the Detroit bullpen.

After Ellsbury steals second for his fifth theft of the playoffs, Victorino hits a ground ball to second base, and Infante throws home to beat Ross by plenty. The collision is more violent than the one Ross engaged in with Cabrera in the opening inning, but Avila hangs on for the out, and Ross gives his opposite number a respectful tap on the butt. Pedroia bounces into a forceout, and Sanchez gets out of the inning with the three-run deficit—the run scored by Gomes is unearned thanks to Cabrera's error.

Lester does what he needs to do in the bottom of the frame, getting through with one of those much-ballyhooed shutdown innings, but it isn't exactly pretty. Infante hits a knuckling line drive that Drew snares, then Gomes has to race back to the warning track to track down a fly ball from Avila that finds its way into the jet stream. Jackson, 2-for-2 in Game 4 after moving from leadoff to the No. 8 spot, singles up the middle, then moves to second on a passed ball. Lester gets his first strikeout of the night when Iglesias swings a pitch in the dirt, ending the inning with the Boston starter at 38 pitches—more than he would like for two innings, but they are scoreless innings, and he has a 3-0 lead.

THIRD INNING

Ortiz hasn't been able to buy a hit except for that game-tying grand slam in Game 2, and maybe he sold his soul for it, because when Big Papi hits a looper into left field to lead off the third inning, Iglesias—starting from the far side of second base as part of the infield shift—runs it down to make an incredible catch. (H/T themediahaven.com)

That looms large when Napoli follows with a ground-rule double, one hop over the left-field fence. Napoli moves to third on Gomes' grounder back to the mound, then makes it 4-0 when he dashes home on a wild pitch. It's an aggressive read of the play by Napoli, a former catcher, who sees the low trajectory of a pitch that bounces well in front of home plate, and off Avila, to provide the opportunity to score. It winds up looking even smarter when Drew grounds out to end the inning.

Now Lester appears to find his groove, getting Hunter to ground out to third, Cabrera to strike out looking—after a long, loud foul ball down the right-field line—and Fielder to ground into the shift for a ball fielded by Drew. It's a nine-pitch inning, and the calculus of the situation says that Lester is halfway to where he needs to be in order to pass off a lead to Craig Breslow, Junichi Tazawa and Koji Uehara, the rested back three in the Boston bullpen.

FOURTH INNING

After striking out Bogaerts, Sanchez surrenders his seventh hit of the game, a single to left by Ross. He gets out of the inning on a 4-6-3 double play from Ellsbury, so for the first time in the game, the Red Sox have gone down 1-2-3, even if it's not in the usual way.

Martinez singles to center field, giving the Tigers a leadoff baserunner for the first time in the game. Peralta flies to center, and as Infante comes to the plate, Brayan Pena steps into the on-deck circle to bat for Avila, who was shaken up on the collision with Ross and can go no further after giving it a try. Pena gets an immediate chance to contribute, as Infante walks to put runners on first and second with one out. As the count goes to 3-0, noise builds in the ballpark, and after Lester gets a gimme strike, Pena bounces back to the mound for an inning-ending 1-6-3 double play.

FIFTH INNING

After Sanchez gets Victorino to ground out to first base and Pedroia to fly to center, Ortiz tries his luck again with a flare to left field. This time, it's too far for Iglesias to track down, and Ortiz has his second hit in 18 at-bats in the series. Napoli follows with a soft fly ball that falls into center field for another single, his third hit of the night.

The announcement comes from the Tigers that Avila left the game with a strained patellar tendon in his left knee, and the catcher is day to day. If Pena moves into the starting lineup, it might mean Jackson moving out of the No. 8 spot, but he seems to be magic there—he leads off the bottom of the fifth with a single up the middle and now is 4-for-4 in his new lineup position. Iglesias tries to bunt his way on, and Lester bobbles the ball, but manages to shovel it over to Napoli for the out, and Iglesias gets credit for a sacrifice. The Red Sox will take the out—they now need only 14 more to win the game.

Hunter pops up behind the plate, bringing the number of available outs for the Tigers down to 13, but then Cabrera gets Detroit on the board with an RBI single to left-center field. Fielder grounds out softly to second base to end the inning, and even though Detroit has cut its deficit to three runs at 4-1, boos ring out for the struggling first baseman.

SIXTH INNING

While the Tigers have been hitting, Porcello and Phil Coke have been warming up in the bullpen, but Sanchez heads to the mound for the sixth inning. Leyland's decision to stay with his starter proves to be a good one, as Sanchez strikes out Drew, gets Bogaerts to pop up to Iglesias behind third base and strikes out Ross. At 108 pitches, Sanchez gets handshakes when he returns to the dugout, basically confirmation that his night is over after allowing four runs (three earned) on nine hits with five strikeouts and no walks.

Lester walks Martinez, giving the Tigers a leadoff runner for the third straight inning. Peralta strikes out, but then Infante dunks a single into center field, one hop into the glove of a diving Ellsbury, who makes an utterly fruitless but completely humorous attempt to act like he made the catch. Pena represents the tying run at the plate, and Farrell deceides to call on his relievers for the last 11 outs, starting with Tazawa.

On the first pitch from the right-hander, Pena laces a single into left-center field, bringing home Martinez to make it a 4-2 game. Jackson, after all that success in the No. 8 spot, picks a bad spot to come up empty for the first time—he grounds into an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play, the second time in three innings that a Detroit rally with two runners on and one out has ended with a twin-killing.

SEVENTH INNING

Coke relieves Sanchez to start the seventh and gets Ellsbury to hit a fly ball that's so easy, Jackson does not even have to move to catch it. And that's it for Coke. Veras comes in to face Victorino, who goes back to batting right-handed after going 0-for-3 batting lefty against Sanchez. Victorino strikes out, so it's just not his night. Pedroia keeps the inning going with an infield single on a high chop, despite a valiant attempt to get him on a barehand play by Infante. Pedroia then steals second to give Ortiz a chance for an RBI, but it's back to hitting gloves for Ortiz—a routine fly to right ends the inning.

Iglesias singles to center off Tazawa, and Hunter singles to right, putting the tying runs on the corners with nobody out and Cabrera coming to the plate. The reigning MVP does get a run in, but at the cost of two outs, in the form of a 4-3 double play. As Breslow enters to face Fielder, Tazawa leaves having given up three hits to the five batters he faced, but having recorded four outs. Breslow gets Fielder to ground out to second, and the Red Sox head to the eighth inning with a 4-3 lead.

EIGHTH INNING

The Red Sox would like to add an insurance run, but Veras has other plans. Those plans include striking out Napoli, who proves to be human, then getting Gomes to ground out to shortstop. On a popup by Drew, Iglesias makes another sensational running catch in short left field. If Ortiz's single in the fifth inning hadn't fallen in, you would swear that Iglesias has magical powers.

Breslow remains in to start the bottom of the eighth, and he gets Martinez to ground to first base—the first time since the third inning that the Tigers have started an inning with an out. Farrell decides that it's time for Uehara, and calls on his closer to try for a five-out save. If he can work it perfectly, Uehara will face the bottom five hitters in the Detroit order. Uehara uncharacteristically falls behind Peralta 3-1, but rallies to strike him out, and then fans Infante to end a very quiet inning.

NINTH INNING

Al Alburquerque comes in from the Tigers' bullpen and issues a leadoff walk to Bogaerts, who is replaced at first base by Middlebrooks. The move pays off with some alert baserunning when Ross drops down a sacrifice bunt that Cabrera fields. Middlebrooks notices nobody is covering third base and races over. Pena runs up the line to try for a double play, but the throw from Fielder is to the plate side of third base, and Pena winds up tagging umpire Rob Drake instead of Middlebrooks.

It may have been a close play if not for that, but Middlebrooks still appeared to be in with his slide.

Ellsbury gets an intentional walk, and with the infield in, he steals his second base of the game. Victorino, batting right-handed against the right-handed Alburquerque, strikes out for the second time on what is now an 0-for-5 night. That leaves the procurement of insurance up to Pedroia, and he flies to center to end the threat.

Middlebrooks stays in at third base. Pena hits a fly to left field that hangs in the air just a little too long, allowing Gomes to make the play with ease. Jackson flies to center, which leaves Iglesias as Detroit's last hope. It's a battle, as the rookie shortstop works a full count, but on the ninth pitch he pops up to second base and Pedroia makes the catch, putting the Red Sox one win away from the pennant.